the ballad - magicroce.gov.it · ballads usually use the common dialect of the poeple ... the...
TRANSCRIPT
Ballads were originally written to
accompany dances, and so were
composed in couplets with refrains.
Most northen and west European
ballads are written in ballad stanzas or
quatrains (four-line stanzas) of
alternating lines of iambic tetrameter
(eight syllables) and iambic trimeter
(six syllables), known as ballad meter.
Usually, only the second and fourth line
of a quatrain are rhymed (ABCB).
The FOOT is the basical metrical unit that
forms part of a line of verse in most Western
traditions of poetry.
The unit is composed of syllables, the
number of which is limited, with a few
variations, by the sound pattern the foot
represents.
The lines of verse are classified according to
the number of feet they contain.
One of the feet, in English, is the IAMB.
It refers to a foot comprising an unstressed
syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
The horse | fair Ann | et rode | upon |
He amb | led like | the wind |,
With sil | ver he | was shod | before,
With burn | ing gold | behind |
Stanza from "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet"
Illustration by John D. Batten for
Tamlane in More English Fairy Tales
Ballads usually use the common dialect of the poeple
and are heavily influenced by the region in which they
originate.
The ballads do not have any known
author or correct version; instead,
having been passed down mainly by
oral tradition since the Middle Ages,
there are many variations of each. The
ballads remained an oral tradition until
the increased interest in folk songs in
the 18th century led collectors to publish
volumes of popular ballads.
The traditional (classical or popular) ballad has been seen as
beginning with the wandering minstrels of late medieval
Europe.
From the end of the 15th century there are printed ballads that
suggest a rich tradition of popular music.
For example, ballads about Robin Hood were being sung from
at least the late 14th century and the oldest detailed material
is Wynkyn de Worde's collection of Robin Hood ballads
printed about 1495.
Celtic Music 2016-The Ballad of Robin Hood
"Oh where ha' you been, Lord Randal, my son?
And where ha' you been, my handsome young man?“
"I ha' been at the greenwood; mother, mak my bed
soon
For I'm wearied wi' hunting', and fain wad lie doon.
"And wha did you meeting there Lord Randal my son
and what did you meeting there my handsome young
man
"O I met wi my true-love; mother, make my bed
soon,For I'm wearied wi' huntin', and fain wad lie
doon."
"O dove sei stato, Lord Randal, figlio mio?
O dove sei stato, mio bellissimo giovane uomo?"
"Sono stato nel bosco sacro; madre, prepara il mio letto presto,
ho cacciato e sono stanco e vorrei coricarmi."
"E chi hai incontrato, Lord Randal, figlio mio?
E chi hai incontrato, mio bellissimo giovane uomo?"
"Ho incontrato il mio vero amore; madre, prepara il mio letto presto,ho cacciato e sono stanco e vorrei coricarmi."
There has been an increasing interest in traditional
popular ballads during the eighteenth century, prompted
by social issues. As a matter of fact, many of the ballads
deal with themes concerning rural laborers.
In the late 19th century, in Denmark, Svend Grundtvig and, in
England and Scotland, the Harvard professor Francis James
Child attempted to record and classify all the known ballads
and variants in their chosen regions.
Since Child died before writing a commentary on his work it is
uncertain exactly how and why he differentiated the 305
ballads printed that would be published as The English and
Scottish Popular Ballads.
There have been many different and contradictory attempts to
classify traditional ballads by theme, but commonly identified
types are the religious, supernatural, tragic, love ballads,
historic, legendary and humorous.
Broadside ballads were a product of the development of cheap print in
the 16th century. They were generally printed on one side of a medium
to large sheet of poor quality paper. In their heyday of the first half of the
17th century, they were printed in black-letter or gothic type and
included multiple, eye-catching illustrations, a popular tune title, as well
as an alluring poem. They were produced in huge numbers, with over
400,000 being sold in England annually by the 1660s.
Many were sold by travelling chapmen in city streets or at fairs.
Among the topics were love, marriage, religion, drinking-songs, legends,
and early journalism, which included disasters, political events and
signs, wonders and prodigies.
F. Schubert - Der Erlkönig
Literary or lyrical ballads grew out of an increasing interest in the
ballad form among social elites and intellectuals, particularly in
the Romantic movement from the later 18th century.
Example of a respected author is Sir Walter Scott in Scotland and in
England Samuel Taylor Coleridge (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner).
In Germany Goethe cooperated with Schiller on a series of ballads,
some of which were later set to music by Schubert.
Later important examples of the poetic form included Rudyard Kipling's
'Barrack-Room Ballads' (1892-6) and Oscar Wilde's 'The Ballad of
Reading Gaol' (1897).
In the 18th century ballad operas developed as a form
of English stage entertainment, partly in opposition to the Italian
domination of the London operatic scene.
It consisted of racy and often satirical spoken (English) dialogue,
interspersed with songs that are deliberately kept very short to
minimize disruptions to the flow of the story. Rather than the more
aristocratic themes and music of the Italian opera, the ballad
operas were set to the music of popular folk songs and dealt with
lower-class characters.
Subject matter involved the lower, often criminal, orders, and
typically showed a suspension (or inversion) of the high moral
values of the Italian opera of the period.
Tho' Late I Was Plump" from the 18th century British ballad opera, A Poor Soldier
The Ballad of Davy CrockettSong with music by George Bruns and lyrics by Thomas W. Blackburn 1954
Native American ballads are ballads that are native to North America.
The blues ballad has been seen as a fusion
of Anglo-American and Afro-American styles
of music from the 19th century.
They were often accompanied by banjo and
guitar which followed the blues musical
format.
The Ballad of Casey Jones.
Danny Boy | BYU Vocal Point
Sentimental ballads had their origins in the early "Tin Pan
Alley" music industry of the later 19th century. They were
generally sentimental, narrative, strophic songs published
separately or as part of an opera.
The association with sentimentality led to the term "ballad"
being used for slow love songs from the 1950s onwards.
Modern variations include "jazz ballads", "popballads"
and "power ballads”.
After the Ball is a popular song written in 1891 by Charles K. Harris.
The most common use of the term ballad in modern pop and R&B music is for an emotional song about romance, breakup and/or longing. Some notable examples of pop ballads include: Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On", Elton John's "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word“.
"Ballad of a Thin Man" is
a song written and recorded
by Bob Dylan.